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The
NY & Pennsylvania RailroadComes
to Shinglehouse in 1900This
is a retyped article form the Oswayo Valley Mail, May 7,1936

Joseph
B. Rumsey of Oswayo, founder of the NY & P

Today,
with the NY&P Railroad having permission from the Commerce Commission
to again quit business, recalls the history of the 54 mile road. This little
railroad has played quite a part in the development of this section.

Joseph B Rumsey of Oswayo was the father of the road. Known in early
years as the Olean, Oswayo and Eastern Railroad, the building began at
Genesee, where connection was made with the Buffalo and Susquehanna railroad.

The
road was opened from Genesee to Rose Lake in 1893, and into Oswayo a year
later. Work begun in the opposite direction and was completed as far as
Rexville in 1895 and connected with the Erie at Cannisteo in september
1896. Construction was delayed year but completed from Oswayo to Millport
in 1899, and into Shinglehouse the next year. Final construction was halted
in 1901 when connection was made at the Shawmut line in Ceres.

Business
was good in the early days when there were few motor cars and everyone
went by train.

Excursion
trains with several passenger coaches were run on the average of every
week or so, bring thousands of people into Shinglehouse to see the wonderful
glass plant. Excuration trains run to Rose Lake in the summer time, to
the Hornell Fair in the fall, and into Hornell and Olean (over the Shawmut)
when some special attraction appeared at a theater.

However,
in September 1916, the railroad applied for permission to quit business
as it had not been a paying proposition for years.This request was finally
granted, and operation from Genesee to Cannisteo ceased in december 1917.

A
movement was begun to save the railroad from the scrap heap, the owner
offering to sell for $325,000. 20 men were found who agreed to take $5,000
each in stock, and by August 1919 the necessary capital was raised to purchase
the road. W.W.Crittenden of Oswayo was the leader in this work.

In
1919 the following directors were named in the reorganization . John
F. Stone of Coudersport, John Troy of Olean, N.E. Coaster of
Greenwood and Churchill Cobb of Spring Mills. Stock subscriptions
were taken by nearly all the manufacturing concerns line, farmers and business
men.

Eight
miles of track had been taken up near Whitesville before the deal had been
completed, but was at once re-laid and the entire line put in good shape,
once more. Passenger train service was discontinued in 191?, but passengers
were carried in the coach of a freight train, and later in the caboose
for a few years.

The
little railroad has taken much abuse from the jokesters. About the best
one was the story of Guy M. Beasor, General Manager, attending a
meeting of the railroad magnates. In the course of talk the snow removal
problem came up. In the conversation were head men of railroads operating
thruout the Rocky Mountains.

Mr. Beasor
stated that the snow bothered his railroad, too. One of the men politely
asked the length of the railroad to which Mr. Beasor replied " 54 miles".
A hem snorted the Santa Fe man, " build a
shed over it!"

In
1923 the road was operated at a loss of $9,000, according to reports, and
at that time regular freight train service was discontinued, and the road
operated as now , only when business warranted.

During
the past few years business of this railroad was fairly good. Much macadam
road was being built in the Oswayo valley and many car loads of crushed
rock were hauled the length of the valley, from Ceres to Genesee. Then
came the extension of the deep sand gas field to Ellisburg and Andrews
Settlement. Much of the big heavy casing and pipe for pipe lines were carried
in over the railroad.

But
a disastrous blow struck this little railroad last July when a flood swept
the Hornell-Cannisteo district and wiped out a large trestle near the terminal
town and destroyed several miles of track. A freight train is now operated
once or twice a week between Whitesville and Ceres.

End

Just a note:In some places you
can still see evidence of a railroad long forgotten, and If you look
hard enough , you might even find an old railroad spike or a tie laying
about in the woods which have grown in the areas where the railroad once
traveled between these towns, and through the Oswayo Valleys here in :